Recent Happenings

 As the year is winding down to a close - ALREADY - and 2022 is approaching quickly I am posting about what I have been doing and what lies ahead for this blog.  

FOCUS: I had racked up a bunch of scheduled posts about fan films to help bulk up the posting in the second half of this year.  Instead of enhancing the experience, it became the focus because work got extremely demanding, and I coasted much more than I had envisioned.  I am going to reign in the focus back to games, related subjects, and geekery in general for most of the posts; anything else will serve to enhance the topics.

SUBJECTS: The games I plan to focus on in the coming year include AD&D (first and second edition), Arduin, Delving Deeper, and any other game that catches my interest such as Sanctions from Purple Crayon Games.  I also have projects of my own such as Grunts (a simple minis game using thhose little green Army men), Toldara (a campaign world for Delving Deeper or other old school games), and a secret project that I am keeping under wraps util it is further developed.  

OTHER: I set a goal of reaching 1,000 posts before the end of 2021 at The Ruins of Murkhill forums and I am currently approaching 1,100 posts.  I was also asked to be a member of the moderation team and I accepted.  I am pretty stoked about both accomplishments because the Ruins are my favorite old school gaming forums.  I will continue to post there in the future.  

That is a quick look back and forward at the blog. I really hope I can return to much greater posting in 2022.  What are your plans on your blog? 

Still Digging DELVING DEEPER

I ordered a copy of Delving Deeper a while back.  I have been reading through different sections of the rulebook and the wheels are turning.  I have checked out many of the retro-clones, neo-clones, and games just barely inspired by one form of D&D or another and I think Delving Deeper may be my favorite of the bunch. It really feels like it is touching on all the bases for me.  This is a little weird because I never owned or played by the OD&D rules.  I started playing with a Holmes Basic set and the AD&D hardbacks.

I will admit that I was a little concerned about the rules using only the Fighter, Magic User, and Cleric classes with Thief being included as an optional class.  I understand the appeal now.  The simplicity has actually made it easier for me to add races to the game.  I have started converting my Toldara information over to the Delving Deeper system and it has been really smooth.  I have one player race ready and in a usable condition and I am working on the other race.  I will post that information soon.  I hope to actually put up a free pdf of all my additions at some point in the future.

Here is a preview of the Slarn character race; it is just the bare bones right now but I will be adding some artwork and the corresponding monster entry to go along with it.

SLARNS are often mistaken for the much more savage Lizardmen but are actually an entirely separate species of reptilian humanoids of roughly human size.  In contrast to the Lizardmen, the jaws of Slarns only protrude about 4 inches from their face and their tail is more of a short nub of approximately six inches.  Slarn typically populate the warmer climates such as jungles and tropical areas but they have been slowly expanding their reach in recent years.  It is not uncommon for Slarn to face a negative initial reaction in urban areas due to their similarity to Lizardmen.

Slarns may advance up to 6th level as a Fighter.  They usually prefer swords or spears as weapons and rely on their natural tough skin for protection since armor for them is very expensive due to the level of customization.  The scaly skin of the Slarn provides them the equivalent AC of Leather armor (7) and improves by 1 at every level after.  Slarns save vs. Breath Weapon as a Fighter 4 levels higher than their current level.  Slarns have a natural ability to blend in to background surfaces similar to the Thief ability to hide in shadows by changing the color of their scales. This is done undetected on a roll of 5-6 on a six-sided die at levels 1 and 2, a roll of 4-6 at levels 3 and 4, and a roll of 3-6 at levels 5 and 6.  Attacking negates any advantage of surprise from that point in the encounter. 

A New Package Arrived....

I have been pretty busy the last few months since moving into my new house and with the summer being the busy time for the bus building business.  Things are leveling out and slowing back down to normal so I will be able to blog more often instead of relying on fan film posts. I have made some purchases in the meantime and the latest purchase had the following five books.

I received the AD&D books with the original covers as a gift from my Uncle in the summer of 1980; along with Deities & Demigods, the Monster Manual, and a ton of dice.  I would obtain the Monster Manual 2 and Unearthed Arcana later. I do not recall ever owning the Field Folio; no particular reason why other than I never did own it.  

I left for the Army and decided to not take my books with me because I did not want them getting screwed up or anything.  Well, they wound up missing when I came back from the Army 8 years later.  I am in the process of rebuilding my old collection all these years later.  I plan on getting both Monster Manuals and Unearthed Arcana again; this time I will even try to get a Fiend Folio.   

I never owned nor did I adopt my game to the AD&D 2nd Edition rules.  I browsed the books upon release when on my friends bought them but I pretty quickly developed a negative opinion because of the missing content - assassins,  half orcs, monks - and what felt like moving from the big table to the kids' table.

I admit that I never gave AD&D 2nd Edition a fair shake back in the day.  I have played a few one shots while I was in the Army and the game seems to play just fine.  I have also looked at some of the 2E retroclones and those really sparked my curiosity about giving the rules a second chance.

I was able to obtain the three core books along with the AD&D books so I am off to a good start.  I do like these black covers much better than the original covers so that was a bonus for me.  I actually thought the Monstrous Compendium loose leaf monster pages were a great idea in theory but turned out be be not so great in practice.  It is also kind of jarring to see the DMG so much smaller in thickness than the PHB when compared to the original AD&D books.  I am going to search for the Options books just to see how the game would change with the use of those add-ons.

Now I am off to do some reading...

Does an "evil" alignment really make sense?

Alignment as many issues to deal with, but there is one that I am not sure has been commonly raised.  Would a PC or NPC actually identify itself as evil?  From an objective moral standpoint, we could say that an action is evil.  We could evil call certain people evil.  But, would these “evil people” actually call themselves evil?  Yes, there are occasional individuals who do use those labels, but it is extremely rare.  Even if a person is committing human sacrifice, they are not doing it with the thought that it is morally wrong.  They are doing it because they think it is morally right.  Professional assassins do not identify as evil either.  They are simply making money performing a service.  If someone hires them to kill someone else, that person probably deserved to die. 

In the PHB, Gygax argues that assassins must be evil because being paid money for killing sentient beings is evil.  As an objective moral truth, he may be correct.  However, it makes little sense to think that PCs would identify as evil even if the player selects an evil alignment.  Monsters would be even less likely to identify themselves as evil. 

The AD&D rules treat alignment as objective moral truth as well as self-identification.  Yet, it is virtually nonsensical to claim that a sentient creature would identify as itself as evil.  Right actions are the ones to be done and wrong actions are the ones not to be done.  When orcs raid human villages, they do not think they are committing a wrong.  They think they are doing something that is right.  In other words, orcs or any other “evil” aligned entity is likely to call itself and its actions as good. 

I would suggest that an altruistic and egoistic axis to replace the good/evil one.  Then you could have an order-freedom axis to replace lawful/chaotic.  An orc or assassin would be viewed as extremely selfish thinking its needs outweigh the needs and rights of humans.  This would resolve many, but not all of the issues.  At least in terms of what most PCs will encounter in typical D&D games, this would make more sense. 

AD&D, Super Heroes, and the Death Penalty

After watching an episode from The Flash a few weeks ago, it occurred to me.  The traditional super hero comics give one of the best arguments in favor of the death penalty.  I am not saying that the death penalty is right or wrong.  In fantasy worlds, you are dealing with entities that have super powers rather than typical human abilities.  With that said, the storylines of super heroes is such that it provides a compelling reason to for a person to be in favor of it, at least in cases of super powers.  To put it another way, perhaps AD&D handles villains better.  Let me explain why.

In many of the traditional super hero storylines, you have iconic villains.  Those villains will be sent to prison, or locked up in an atom collider.  At a certain point in time, those villains escape.  They are then recaptured and locked up again.  Then, at another point in time, they will escape again.  At least some of these villains have killed people.  On their release, they will kill people again.  The evidence is clear that the regular police have difficultly capturing them.  When these criminals are locked up, they will always find a way out.  Would it be better for the world if they were killed?  In fact, shouldn’t the super hero be held morally responsible for not killing the villain?  By sparing the life of a villain, who will only escape, he is enabling more death and carnage in the future.  I do not see what is so super or heroic about that! 

Let us now consider AD&D.  I do not know about your adventures, but generally, the group does not take prisoners.  You fight and kill the monsters.  You try to prevent their escape.  Why?  Because they will warn other monsters or come to attack you later.  Certainly it might be a situation where they surrender, but that is likely rare.  Such situations can pose both alignment issues and practical issues.  You ae 3 days inside of a dungeon and a group of orcs surrenders.  Can you really risk taking them out of the dungeon and turning them over to authorities?  Would the authorities even bother locking them up?  At the same time, can a good alignment character kill defenseless creatures that surrendered, even if they are evil?  The solution I suppose is to always have at least one evil character in your party to deal with the situation. 

Now, imagine how messed up your AD&D world would be if your Lawful Good Paladin acted like a super hero!  You have battled your way through the fortress.  The evil cleric is in the process of summoning an evil demon or god to the world.  The entire world could be destroyed or at least enslaved.   He is responsible for the deaths of hundreds already.  Your party kills all of the guards and defeats the cleric.  However, instead of killing the cleric, he is taken prisoner.  The prisoner is then taken to a prison.  He will later escape from the prison and the party will have to go after him again.  It seems to me this will only lead to a world where the evil cleric will eventually win. 

Isn’t the AD&D of method of simply killing the cleric and then destroying the body to prevent resurrection a much better way to deal with really powerful villains?  I know I would certainly feel better living in a world with lawful good paladin slaughtering evil villains than one where every few months another super villain finds his way out to cause harm to the public.   In the fantasy worlds, perhaps we should be looking at AD&D instead of super heroes for moral guidance.  Or at the very least, a common sense solution to the problem of how to handle super power villains.

What Textbooks Teach us about RPG books

The latest edition of D&D seems to be doing well in terms of sales.  Yet, I am sure there are many people still playing AD&D that never felt the need to purchase and play a new edition.  If you have rules that work and you already have the books, then why bother with a new edition?  That same question can be asked of college textbooks.  Is a new edition of a college algebra textbook really needed?  Chances are, in many disciplines, there is no need for a new edition of a textbook is the purpose is to educate students.  However, the purpose of the textbook is to make the publisher money.  The same holds true with RPG books as well. 

This may be obvious to those who think about it, but in case it isn’t, let me walk you through why the market forces textbook publishers to put out a new edition and why those same forces make publishers put out new editions of RPGs.  Textbooks are high quality, in terms of production value.  Those hardbacks can last decades.  The publisher only makes money by selling new books.  Further, most of the money publisher makes come from selling to bookstores.  Hence, they do not make the full MSRP.  The production cost is high.  Finally, the longer the book is out, the fewer books you will sell. 

The reason why new textbooks sell poorly after the first year or two is that the high quality guarantees that most of the books will end up in the used book market.  Students will purchase the used books, so the publishers does not make any money.  The solution for textbooks is a huge increase in price followed by new editions every 2-3 years. 

Used books are only part of the issue for RPGs.  Unlike college, market forces help to keep the price of RPGs down.  However, given the high production value, players do not need to replace their books.  Moreover, in many game groups, PDFs and sharing a copy of one or two rulebooks is enough.  Thus, RPG publishers have to put out new books to get new sales. 

Publishers can put out adventures, setting supplements, and rule (splat) books.  Unlike in the Gygax era, adventures sell poorly.  Only the GM’s will purchase it and only a few of them will bother buying it.  Unless you are WotC or Pathfinder, your market share is so small you might not even sell enough adventures to break even.  Setting supplements might appeal to more than just the GM, but it is still going to be a small percentage of the fan base.  Hence, you have to have a large market share for it to be profitable. 

Thus, the main seller besides the core rulebook is going to be splat books.  These books add new rules, options, equipment, spells, etc. to the game.  This way, all of the players of your system will purchase these books.  This does not work for every game system.  Further, there might be a splat limit.  Finally, not all players will purchase these splat books. 

Eventually, if a publisher is going to make money from an existing game line, they need to put out a new edition.  A new edition is a massive benefit to the publisher.  First, a large portion of your current player base will purchase the new edition.  Second, game stores will stock the new edition leading to growing your fan base.  Third, you get to recycle old material and new product.  Victoriana is a great example of this.  The 2^nd edition used adventures for the first edition.  They had to convert the rules, so that justified the 2^nd edition.  The 3^rd edition repackages many of the older adventures and released them as new.  Sometimes with some new content. 

My point is that frequent new editions and now a financial necessity for RPG publishers.  Sometimes there are significant rule changes and sometimes there are not.  Yet, it is simply the best way to make profit as an RPG publisher.  Without a fast growing RPG industry or a dramatic drop in competition, the best way forward is to make as much money from your existing customers as possible.  The best way to do that is new edition.  It is the same with textbooks.  While textbook publishers can force you to buy a new edition, RPG publishers cannot.  Hence, there is an incentive to make the new edition advantageous to get, and sometimes the best way to do that is to alter the rules to make backwards compatibility difficult.